


A Partner In Seduction

by SuburbanSun



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Attempted Seduction, Awkwardness, F/M, Seduction, Strip Tease, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:39:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8353654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuburbanSun/pseuds/SuburbanSun
Summary: The best laid plans of Leo Fitz often go awry.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For a Tumblr anon, who requested Fitzsimmons + "giving the other a strip tease." 
> 
> Takes place around current canon, written after 4x04.

Fitz stroked his chin thoughtfully as he looked around the room. Candles? Check. Dim mood lighting? Check. No rose petals, because he hadn’t had the time to get off base to a flower shop. He _had_ found a floral-scented air freshener in a store room cupboard and hung it on Jemma’s bedside lamp. That would have to do.

He glanced at the clock-- she’d surely be coming back to their room at any minute-- and then down at himself. He was wearing the navy trousers that he thought fit a bit too snugly but she insisted were perfect, and a blue button-up she’d complimented multiple times (not that he’d counted thank you very much). And as for undergarments… well, he didn’t have as wide a range of options for those as she did, but these charcoal-colored boxer briefs were fairly new, at least.

He was as ready as he’d ever be.

Footsteps sounded in the hall, and Fitz pivoted wildly, checking for any errant messes to tidy up. The lone throw pillow they kept on the bed was askew, and he lunged for it, just managing to shift it to the middle of the bed and give it a nice fluff before the door swung open and a tired Jemma appeared.

“You’re still up,” she said, a sleepy smile on her face as she shut the door behind her.

“‘Course I am; it’s only--” Fitz looked at the clock again. “11:45.”

Jemma yawned, toeing off her shoes and lining them up neatly by the door. “A perfectly acceptable time to be getting off work, apparently.”

“Well, you’ve got lots to do,” he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Important stuff. I know that.”

She met his gaze, her eyes soft, and shrugged. “I only wish we could see each other for longer than a handful of minutes each morning and night.” He was about to respond in agreement, when she furrowed her brow. “What’s that smell?” Before he could answer, she scrunched up her face and sneezed, nearly pitched forward by the motion. She sniffled, still frowning. “It smells like… cheap flowery shampoo. Did you just have a shower?”

“Ah--” Fitz’s eyes slid over to her lampshade, where the heat from the bulb must have been intensifying the scent of the air freshener. He edged over to her bedside table, nearly tripping over the corner of the bed, and snatched it off the shade. “It’s nothing. Just a little-- awful, really, isn’t it?” He stepped around her and opened the door a crack, chucking the small piece of cardboard out into the hallway and shutting the door in one fluid motion. He turned back to her, rubbing his hands together as if to brush any trace of the scent off them. “Glad that’s done with.”

Jemma watched him doubtfully, but then turned to her dresser, apparently too tired to question his behavior. “Well, if you don’t mind, I think I’d just like to…” She knelt down to pull a pair of pajamas out of the bottom drawer, and as she straightened, she was at eye level with a neat row of glowing tea light candles. “Fitz?”

“Mmhmm?”

“Where on Earth did these candles come from?”

“May has a whole stash of them, believe it or not. They’re relaxing for her tai chi, or something,” he answered, one hand reaching up to fiddle with the top button of his shirt. “Actually--”

Jemma whirled around, her expression one of fond incredulity. “Leopold Fitz--”

“Don’t--”

“Are you trying to seduce me?”

Fitz grimaced, his hand sliding around to rub at the back of his neck. “A bit, yeah?”

A slow smile grew on Jemma’s face, and she stepped closer to him. Her pajama set still clutched in one hand, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His hands flew automatically to her waist. “The candles, the artificial flower scent…”

“It’s just, like you said, we’ve hardly gotten to spend any time together lately.” He licked his lips, and her eyes flickered down to his mouth as he did so. “You’ve been so busy with the Director--”

“And you with Radcliffe and Aida! If anything, I should be seducing you!”

Raising his eyebrows, Fitz tried to hold back a chuckle. “Jemma… would you believe that pretty much everything you _do_ seduces me?”

She stepped closer to him then, her body pressed flush against his as the corner of her mouth quirked up and her eyes danced with mischief and mirth. “Yes.”

He slid his hands from her waist to her hips and gently pushed her a step backward as he tried to ignore his body’s reaction to her proximity. “Good. Then let me do this for you.”

Jemma looked like she wanted to argue-- he was sure she did, in fact-- but she kept quiet, stepping backward until she reached the bed. She sat down and scooted back, nestling comfortably against the pillows, her eyes never once leaving his.

“Alright,” she said, a hint of challenge in her voice. “Show me.”

He cleared his throat, doing a little quick calculus in his head to counteract the way her bossy voice always made him feel. When he was able to look at her again, she had her legs stretched out on the bed, her head tilted to the side, and was toying with one of the tassels on the throw pillow with one hand. She raised an eyebrow, as if to say, “ _Well?_ ”

“Right. Um.”

After a beat, he reached up unceremoniously and began to unbutton his shirt, slipping the buttons efficiently through the buttonholes just like he did at the end of every day.

“Fitz?” she interrupted. “Slower, please.”

His cheeks flushed, but he did as she said. He spent an agonizing length of time sliding the next button through its hole, parting his shirt open another painstaking inch. As more skin was uncovered and he moved onto the next button, he thought (hoped, really) that he heard Jemma hum appreciatively.

Finally, his shirt hung fully open, a strip of pasty chest revealed to her. He met her eyes to check in, see how he was doing, and she gave a little nod in response, so he shrugged the shirt off entirely, letting it fall to the floor.

“Oh--” she said, frowning. Her eyes were on the crumpled pile of fabric rather than on him, and he quickly realized his mistake.

“Sorry, sorry.” He bent over and picked up the shirt, opening up the closet door to deposit it in their shared laundry basket. When he closed the door again, her pleased smile had returned.

“Go on.”

“Okay.” Shirtless in the middle of their bedroom, he reached down and adjusted the waist of his pants once, then twice, as he decided on his next step. “Okay.” His hands landed on his belt buckle, and after a moment, he undid it, watching her for a reaction. She craned her neck, perhaps eager to see what he’d do next. He’d been moving so slowly, he thought, that perhaps he should surprise her with a little bit of speed.

Grasping onto the buckle of the belt with his opposite hand, he yanked on it, the leather hissing through his belt loops and whipping out the other side-- whipping so hard that the belt hit the sensitive skin of his forearm with a sharp, stinging thwack. “Ahh!” he cried out, cringing, and Jemma sat up straighter on the bed with concern.

“Are you--”

“‘m fine. Fine.”

He glared down at the offending accessory in his hands, pushing it into the top drawer of his dresser with more force than necessary before rubbing at his forearm. One hand playing at her lips, Jemma just giggled.

“Oh-- funny, is it? Me injuring myself in the service of seducin’ you?”

She clucked her tongue and tried to suppress further laughter. “No, of course not!”

“Maybe I should stop?” he suggested with no intention of doing so. “Laughter’s not exactly the desired effect, you know.”

Jemma schooled her features and dragged her gaze from his face, down to his bare chest, to his trouser-clad legs and back up again. When she met his eyes, hers were heavy-lidded and sincere. “Don’t stop.”

That phrase sent a bolt of excitement through him as he imagined-- _remembered_ \-- it being said in a number of much more compromising contexts. He licked his lips and carried on, his thumb resting on the button of his trousers.

“Should I…” he began, nodding down at them.

“Yes, please.”

Fitz slowly and deliberately unbuttoned them, pulling the zipper down inch by inch. He pushed them low on his hips, then over his thighs, before letting them fall to the ground and stepping out of them.

Or, rather, trying to step out of them. Instead, one ankle got caught in a trouser leg and his entire body jerked forward. He only just managed to catch himself with both palms on the edge of the bed. This time, Jemma laughed in earnest. He scowled as he stood up straight again, stepping carefully out of his traitorous trousers.

“Alright, laugh it up,” he said as he stood there in only his boxer briefs, feeling a little too exposed. His hands went instinctively to his hips. “We’ll see how you like it, next time you’re takin’ off all your--”

Jemma interrupted his train of thought by shifting swiftly onto her knees atop the bed, shuffling forward until they were face to face. She ran her hands up his chest and over his shoulders to the back of his head, and the tips of her fingers scratched lightly through his curls in that way he knew she knew he liked. Her clothed chest was pressed up against his bare one, and her nose brushed lightly against his.

“Fitz.”

He sucked in a breath and clutched at her sides with both hands. “Yeah?”

“I don’t think I’d laughed today, before just now. Not even once.”

“Okay.”

She pressed a soft kiss to one corner of his mouth, then to the other. “One of the very many things I love about you,” she said, stretching up to kiss his cheek, “is that you can both make me laugh.” A kiss to the other cheek. “And be maddeningly sexy at the same time.”

Fitz slid his hands around to the small of her back, pressing her closer to him. “I am? I mean, I do?”

Jemma let out a throaty chuckle. “You do, and you are.”

“Mm. You too. I mean, I feel the same way about you.”

She nuzzled her cheek against his, and he could feel her grin. Then she reached up and nipped lightly at one of his earlobes, before whispering, “Maybe seduction is one of the many things that we’re better at when we try it together.”

He pulled back far enough so he could see her face, taking in her flushed cheeks and darkened eyes. “I think you’re wearing far too many clothes for that,” he said, his mouth suddenly feeling a bit dry.

“That’s simply unacceptable, then,” she said, her fingers beginning to toy with the buttons of her own shirt. Suddenly, Fitz was so, so pleased to have a partner in seduction.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to hang out on Tumblr? I'm unbreakablejemmasimmons over there!


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